China, Iran Missile Sales Confirmed

The apparent sale to Iran of 12 of the Soviet-era Kh-55 cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,860 miles, is likely to add to concern in Washington about alleged efforts by Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

The allegations surfaced last month in comments by a Ukrainian legislator, and public confirmation by the new administration of President Viktor Yushchenko came Friday.

Each missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead with a 200-kiloton yield at altitudes too low to be detected by radar, and the sales have been portrayed as a significant leak of Soviet-era weapons technology.

Yuri Boychenko, an aide to Ukraine's prosecutor-general, said by telephone from Kiev, the capital, that the sales had not involved the government of then-President Leonid D. Kuchma.

"No state orders were issued to execute this operation. In fact the state had nothing to do with it," Boychenko said. "It was a totally illegal deal carried out by an international criminal group."

However, Hryhoriy Omelchenko, the legislator who went public last month with allegations of the smuggling operation, charged Friday that "it is ridiculous to say that they have no information about the involvement of high state officials."

"The deal, or actually two deals, were from the very beginning monitored by Ukrspetsexport, the state-owned arms sale monopoly," Omelchenko said in a telephone interview. "Kuchma was in the picture from the very beginning, and in other words he sanctioned the deals. Documents to that effect exist and they should be at the disposal of the general prosecutor's office."

Omelchenko said missiles were shipped to China in 2000 and Iran in 2001.

If the missiles were made operational, they could strike Israel if launched from Iran and Japan if fired from China or its neighbor, North Korea.

The Japanese government reportedly is worried that the six missiles allegedly shipped to China could have ended up in North Korea, which claims to possess nuclear weapons. China is a longtime nuclear power that already has a variety of long-range missiles.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said U.S. and Ukrainian authorities have discussed the alleged missile sales.